This invention relates generally to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and more particularly the invention relates to the correction of magnetic resonance imaging for motion of the imaged body.
Involuntary patient motion is still one of the greatest challenges in MRI. Due to the sequential nature of the MR acquisition process, a significant amount of time can elapse between different samples in k-space, leaving many MRI sequences vulnerable to patient motion. The resulting increase in misregistration can severely impair the diagnostic quality of an MR examination. The medical condition of a patient, such as tremor, pain, or mental status, often prevents even willing patients from holding still. Past attempts at addressing this problem through sequence approaches, such as snapshot imaging or gated acquisition, have had limited success. Therefore, efficient motion correction strategies are timely and have the potential for great impact as MRI becomes more common in geriatric and pediatric patient populations.